Mexican Immigrants Seeking Asylum In US: Is Drug Violence Enough For American Authorities?

As drug violence has escalated in Mexico, many migrants are seeking asylum as a way of escaping the country and entering the United States. A new report from the New York Times reveals that a Mexican official is helping hundreds of migrants in this process. C. Ramon Contreras Orozco has written hundreds of official letters for residents in the state of Michoacan detailing the violence experienced in the state as a result of increasing pressure from the Knights Templar drug cartel in the hopes that such letters will grant their bearers entry into the United States.

Mr. Contreras Orozco, 38, began writing the letters in March when a young woman approached him after a vicious gun battle between the Knights Templar and various local residents left some residents dead and many more fearing for their lives. He has since begun writing hundreds more such letters: “This is a failed state,” Mr. Contreras said. “The government can’t follow through on anything.” As violence in the state has escalated dramatically, many have begun to see their home as uninhabitable.

The effects of Mr. Contreras actions on the US border have been drastic: asylum requests have doubled from 13,800 in 2012 to 36,000 in 2013. As the Times reports, "American officials believe that Mr. Contreras’s letters were presented in nearly 2,000 of the most recent cases." Yet most cases have been unsuccessful as most Mexican asylum pleas are rejected. Indeed, in 2012, only one percent of cases were approved. Moreover, a number of fake letters from Mr. Contreras have emerged across the US border.

Mr. Contreras has thus become something of a focal point for recent US-Mexico relations. As drug-related violence increases in states like Michoacan and Jalisco, more and more residents are seeking to flee Mexico in the hopes of greater safety in the United States. However, the amount of asylum applications vastly overwhelms the amount of requests that can be granted. The issue, therfore, serves to highlight not the necessity for more asylum places, but moreso as yet another reminder of the importance of Mexican and American authorities working together to bring an end to the drug war that is still ravaging the country.